3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice (Paperback)

by Doug A. Bowman, Ernst Kruijff, Ivan Poupyrev, et al.

Book Overview

On desktop computers, good user interface design is now almost universally recognized as a crucial part of the software and hardware development process. Almost every computing-related product touts itself as easy to use, intuitive, or designed with your needs in mind. With the advent of virtual environments, augmented reality, ubiquitous computing, and other off-the desktop technologies, 3D user interface design is now becoming a critical area...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321980042
• ISBN13: 9780321980045
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Very Comprehensive and Well Organized

If you will entering the world of virtual environments, 3D graphics and worlds, virtual reality and even augmented reality, this book will give you ALL the background information you need. It summarizes everything from software, hardware devices, interaction and everything that deals with the Third dimension.

GOOD TITLE

The book present a very good perspective that how is walking the tecnology of 3DUI, and limits that are growing down versus time.

Wanna know about 3D UI?

If you are interested in knowing 3D UI, you should buy this book. It covers almost every technologies designed or developed in recent years. This book consists of about 13 chapters. In each chapter, it explained the different aspect of 3D UI interfaces following chronological patterns. So, if you want to follow or know technological paradigms, it can be one of useful books you should reference.

Academic overview of the field

I hope nobody takes academic in the negative sense. This is fascinating book that provides an overview of all of the different hardware and software techniques in the 3D user interface world. And it does a very capable job of using a combination of images and text to describe the technologies. It's academic in two regards; first, it's written like a paper, and second that it has little in terms of practical implementation. Frankly I doubt you could go far beyond the academic in an overview of a field that is this broad and this early in it's development. What this book does do is provide some real incentive to enthusiasts and developers to evaluate and combine these technologies. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is in the field or has an interest in it.

Sweeping survey

A fortnight ago, at the Siggraph 2004 convention in Los Angeles, Addison-Wesley had a booth with many of their graphics books. This book was garnering a fair amount of interest. Now that I've had a chance to read it, I can see why. It is a lucid explanation of how to design three dimensional user interfaces. The authors summarise a vast body of work done in past decades. Plus, unlike perhaps some books that might focus on only US research, they show the global scope of the effort. Being a text on 3D graphics, you might expect considerable maths. There is indeed some, including a brief description of quarternions. But the amount of maths is deliberately downplayed. Enough is used to impart a basic flavour in certain sections. However, the general tenor of the book is at a higher level of design. Many serious issues remain unresolved. The book shows you what these are. Very helpful if you are in this field. Especially for newcomers.